When Sugimoto Met Rodin

Contemporary Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto would seem an unlikely match with the late French sculptor Auguste Rodin. But that’s what the Gagosian Gallery chose to do in an exhibit in Paris.

The carefully curated selling exhibition, “Rodin-Sugimoto,” takes place Feb. 11 to Mar. 25 and presents a stark contrast in material, volume and approaches to art. Though the gallery declined to reveal the prices, 12 Sugimoto prints are available for purchase. The three Rodin sculptures are for display only.

In featuring the work of the 62-year-old Mr. Sugimoto alongside that by Rodin — who died in 1917 and whose sculptures set the standard for big outdoor art for decades — it sets up the contemporary with the established classic.

Mr. Sugimoto’s photography-based art is renowned both for its conceptualism and technical achievement. In 2009, one of his seascapes, “Boden Sea, Utwill,” was used as the cover and inspired the title of U2’s CD “No Line on the Horizon.”

A similar 1.5-meter-by-1.8-meter image, “Black Sea, Ozuluce,” one out of an edition of five, sold at a June 2008 auction at Christie’s for 646,050 pounds (US$1.3 million).

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Japan Real Time is a newsy, concise guide to what works, what doesn’t and why in the one-time poster child for Asian development, as it struggles to keep pace with faster-growing neighbors while competing with Europe for Michelin-rated restaurants. Drawing on the expertise of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, the site provides an inside track on business, politics and lifestyle in Japan as it comes to terms with being overtaken by China as the world’s second-biggest economy. You can contact the editors at japanrealtime@wsj.com